To the Editor:
In 2013, then-Republican Governor Bob McDonnell issued an executive order allowing lethal injections of offenders who were beyond the use of painful electric chairs, gas chambers or firing squads. It was a decision that rightly angered many in the criminal justice system, but ultimately defied the will of the people. Maryland executed more than 100 inmates from 1999-2013. In my opinion, McDonnell’s decision was a terrible mistake.
Today, the internet is flooded with a misleading and not-at-all fair comparison of the death penalty nationally to the nonviolent, non-lethal alternatives. While execution is not automatically off the table for courts where a convict is identified as being in a death-racket (a Class D felony), it is likely that Maryland can legally wait out the continuing debate over how to best end the life of an individual who chose to bring evil into our midst, for which they will never be punished.
Kenneth Haliburton
Silver Spring